Gophers QB Athan Kaliakmanis needs extra-thick skin as he grows into role

Sundays are "leather vest days'' for the Gophers football team, times when coach P.J. Fleck and his staff dissect the team's performance in the previous day's game and constructively criticize players for what they could have done better and praise them for what they did well.

Extra-thick skin, aka a leather vest, can come in handy if a player has played poorly, because he's going to hear about it.

On Saturday, redshirt freshman quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis made his second career start, and he didn't wow the home crowd in the Gophers' 31-3 victory over Northwestern as he completed seven of 13 passes for 64 yards. On Monday, however, Fleck pointed to Kaliakmanis' performance as a step in the quarterback's growth.

"When you're having a freshman quarterback play, it's just like a rookie in the NFL,'' Fleck said Monday. "You know they have to be able to build their own scars. You look at Tanner [Morgan] and his experience. His experience has to do with scars: things he's done well, things he hasn't done well, things he's learned from.''

Kaliakmanis started in place of Morgan, who suffered a concussion Oct. 15 at Illinois and sustained what Fleck termed an "upper body'' injury at Nebraska three weeks later. Fleck on Monday said Morgan was at practice Sunday and still is under supervision by the team's medical staff. That likely would make the quarterback choice for Saturday's rivalry contest against Iowa a game-time decision, though Kaliakmanis would get most of the first-team practice reps if Morgan is limited.

Fleck pointed to two plays that could have made Kaliakmanis' productivity look much more robust against Northwestern.

The first came on the first play of the second quarter, when an open Mike Brown-Stephens was poised for a big gainer, but Kaliakmanis had the ball slip while he was passing, leading to an incompletion.

The second happened later in the second quarter when Kaliakmanis led Dylan Wright just a bit too far on a post pattern that could have resulted in a Gophers touchdown.

"That's how our offense works. The routine plays have to be made from every position, and if we're able to make them, it's a different game,'' Fleck said. "Now, we won 31-3, so this isn't like we scored five points. But when you look at how much more we can do just routinely, that's what we've got to get out of our guys.''

Kaliakmanis showed the ability to rebound within the game, a trait the Gophers are likely to need in the closing contests against Iowa and Wisconsin. He threw incomplete on his first three passes against Northwestern and finished the first half 3-for-9 for 17 yards.

He wasn't called upon to do much passing in the second half as the Gophers ran the ball 30 times after intermission, but he did complete all four of his second-half throws for 47 yards. Just as important entering a game in which he'll face Iowa's opportunistic, ball-hawking defense, he did not throw an interception.

"There's no greater teacher than experience, and that's what he's gaining right now,'' Fleck said. "I thought he responded really well. He's such a competitor. We won the game, but he knew he could play better. We've all seen him play better. But it all doesn't just fall on him.''